Stu Hurd (Joey Kulkin photo)
BENNINGTON -- Town Manager Stu Hurd continues to flush taxpayer dollars down the toilet. This is not a recording. His latest spending spree occurred last month when he authorized fancy upgrades to Town Hall to the tune of $7,764.
Stu spent that money for what he called "total renovations" to the offices of town clerk and collections. It paid for new birch hardwood counters and desks as well as file cabinets plus all of the installation. Stu justified the "budgeted" spending by saying those offices hadn't been upgraded in years which is neither here nor there because In a time when Bennington struggles to generate cash flow he chooses to spend tax dollars on fancy redecorating to the White House.
Even more insulting was the decision by Stu's buildings and grounds supervisor to hire the Vermont Offender Work Program -- up in Newport, 195 miles away -- to do the $7,764 in upgrades. It makes no sense when you stop to consider that Brian Coon and his talented building-trade students at the Career Development Center right here in Bennington could have performed the work. Stu could have given the program a generous stipend for the kind of work that gets the students ready for the real world not to mention local social media loves this kind of story.
The irony is that the CDC building-trade students were back in Puerto Rico last week to help rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Maria but our town manager doesn't think they're worthy or talented enough to build a few office counters and desks for Town Hall. And wooooosh goes the taxpayer toilet again.
To see how $7,764 in Bennington taxpayer money was wasted: http://bit.ly/Stu_UselessWork
